Kinetics of Sulfur Oxide, Sulfur Fluoride, and Sulfur Oxyfluoride Anions with Ozone

Rate constants and product branching ratios were measured for eleven sulfur oxide, sulfur fluoride, and sulfur oxyfluoride anions reacting with O₃. The SO^– ₂ ion reacts rapidly to form –O^– ₃, SO^– ₃, and e^–. The temperature dependence of the branching ratio shows more reactive detachment and less SO^– ₃ formation at higher temperature. SO^– ₃ reacts with O₃, forming SO^– ₄ at 1/3 to 1/4 of the collisional rate from 200 to 500 K, respectively. At 300 K, SF^– ₆ charge transfers to O₃ at 20% of the collisional rate. F₂SO^– ₂ reacts with O₃ at a few percent of the collision rate, forming both O^– ₃ and FSO^– ₃; The ion F₃SO^– reacts slowly with O₃ to form F₃SO^– ₂. The ions SO^– ₄, SF^– ₅, FSO^– ₂, FSO^– ₃, F₃SO^–, and F₅SO^– are unreactive with O₃. A trend is noted relating the ion reactivity with the coordination of the central sulfur atom, i.e., the number of S–F bonds plus two times the number of S=O bonds. Only ions with a sulfur coordination of 4 or 6 are reactive, although the reaction rate constants are generally small. The reactivity trends appear to be partially explained by spin conservation. These reactions are all sufficiently slow, so O₃ reactions should not play a major role in SF₆/O₂ discharges. All ions studied have been found to be unreactive with O₂.